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News Clips –
STATE Bill would give superintendents more authority
/ State Journal-Register NATIONAL Federal folly / Daytona Beach News-Journal Gas Prices May Mean Fewer
School Buses or Higher Fees
/ Fitness Classes Fall Short
in Many Schools, Panel Says
/ New York Times District's $30 million art
trove stirs debate / Philadelphia
Inquirer Parents take schools to task
/ USA Today Meeting NCLB mandate / Charlotte Observer (NC) STATE Bill would give superintendents more authority By Adriana Colindres, State Capitol Buearu,
State Journal-Register, A proposed law to revamp
the state's education system also aims to boost the responsibilities
of regional school superintendents, who just a year
ago were fighting to keep their jobs. Portions of Senate Bill
3000, which would give the governor greater control over the State Board
of Education, spell out extra duties for The bill, an agreed
measure hammered out last month by the governor and the four legislative
caucuses, would grant regional superintendents additional authority.
For instance, they would have the power to approve school calendars,
and they would have an enhanced role in the teacher certification process. Rep. Jerry Mitchell,
R-Sterling, who helped negotiate the education bill, said he and other
negotiators deliberately sought to increase the responsibilities of
regional superintendents. "Basically, we've
really had no way to judge how effective the regional superintendents'
offices have been across the state," Mitchell said. "That's
been part of the problem with that office over time. Many people, including
this sitting governor, have stated that they don't feel that the regional
offices of education are needed. Our local superintendents tell us that
they are." "I think it's a
good fit," Tolan said. "I don't see it
that way," Schiller said, adding that the bill raises some unresolved
issues. As an example, he referred to the provisions on teacher certification. "It takes about
three to four months for someone to be trained on how to evaluate transcript
by transcript," he said. "What has not been answered is: Where
are they going to get the people or the resources to do this?" In recent years, the
regional superintendents' offices have come under fire, with some lawmakers
and other officials asking whether they truly are necessary. For instance, when Gov.
Rod Blagojevich presented his first budget proposal in April 2003, he
originally intended to chop $22 million in funding from the regional
offices and their elected superintendents. At the time, he said, "this
extra layer of administrators is a luxury we simply cannot afford." Some legislators and
the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools responded
to the governor's plan by arguing that the regional superintendents'
offices should not be abolished because they perform important duties. "There's a certain
amount of work that just has to get done," said Bruce Dennison,
president of the regional superintendents group. "And if it doesn't
get done in Dennison, the regional
superintendent for Bureau, Henry and Stark counties, said the superintendents
group and the Blagojevich administration reached an agreement last year
that ensured restoration of some fiscal 2004 budget funds to the regional
offices. Fiscal year 2004 started on Another part of the
agreement called upon the regional superintendents to develop a legislative
plan by 2005 to reduce their numbers from 45 to 22, Dennison said. Such
a plan has not surfaced yet. Sen. George Shadid, D-Peoria, who has long questioned whether Illinois
really needs regional superintendents, wondered last week whether that
agreement remains in effect. "I would have thought
that maybe they would have put it in this year's budget to reduce the
amount of them in half," Shadid said.
"The big issue is are we going to reduce the amount of regional superintendents
or not? And if we're not, then we should say so." But a Blagojevich aide
said Friday that the governor still wants to trim the number of regional
superintendents. "The regional superintendents
do play a role in Senate Bill 3000. They have important responsibilities
and new levels of accountability in the legislation," said spokeswoman
Rebecca Rausch. "They are an important piece of this reshaping
of the way education is administered in the state." Even so, the agreement
between the governor's office and the regional superintendents still
applies, she said. The most recent version
of SB 3000 has been approved in the House but not in the Senate. Because
of the ongoing budget impasse, lawmakers still have time to vote on
that measure and others, including legislation that would shore up the
retired teachers' health insurance program. Raising the battle cry for state tax reform By Anne Cook, Now there's a groundswell
of support for making sweeping changes, and school officials –
who face shortfalls in funding, a growing number of mandates and revenues
limited by tax caps, untaxed public land and other factors – are
leading the charge. "It has snowballed,"
said Becky McCabe, principal of State Sen. Rick Winkel, R-Urbana, said even though activists have tried unsuccessfully
to push through changes in the school funding structure several times
since the 1980s, the climate may be right now in Springfield for changes
that include school funding because the state's overall budget picture
is so bleak. "The timing is
right to change our tax structure," said Winkel
of the financial situation in Winkel is a co-sponsor of legislation now making the rounds
in "We're talking about increasing income tax
from 3 percent to 5 percent, but the bill's still a work in progress,
and changes can be expected," Winkel
said. "It's meant to generate debate. The property tax would be
reduced by $2.5 billion statewide. It would provide more school funding
fairness and decrease direct taxation on business so it can expand,
and in the long run, that means more jobs."' Ralph Martire
is executive director of the Chicago-based Center for Tax and Budget
Accountability, which has proposed a tax reform platform endorsed by
the "No more complaints
and vague principles," said Martire,
who recently visited Leal to talk to local advocates. "We need
to solve the problem. We have a problem because the state doesn't bear
its fair share of the burden." "About 39 percent
of the budget is for education," he said. "About 24 percent's
for Medicaid, 20 percent is spent on social services, 9 percent on public
safety, 6 percent on administration and 2 percent's the rest. We're
not wasting money." He said critics who
say the state should operate more like a business miss the point. "In business, when
revenue's down, demand's down, and you can
fire employees, close some factories and cut expenses, and demand goes
up," Martire said. "Government's the opposite. When revenue's
down, demand's up. We can't say, 'Sorry, we're having a bad year, so
we're not offering third grade this year.' We expect public services
to be there even when times are bad." The center proposes
solutions that would include: – Increasing personal
income tax from 3 percent to 5 percent, putting She said "We've been working
on this for 15 years," Vercler said.
"In December 1987, the delegates to the Farm Bureau's annual meeting
said we need to make it a top priority to establish a broader base for
funding education, and the Farm Bureau needed to form coalitions with
education and taxpayers' groups." That early initiative
was called "CHIEF," which stood for Changing How Illinois
Education is Financed. It was proposed by "It was a passion
with him and Lin Warfel," Vercler
said of another early campaign leader, Tolono's Warfel,
who is now a member of the He said CHIEF became
the "grandfather" of a family of reform proposals, including
Martire's proposals. "Concepts in place
then are concepts used today by those who want change," Vercler
said. "The Farm Bureau
leaders who started CHIEF were primarily motivated by education quality
in rural areas, and they traced a direct link between overreliance
on property tax and inequitable school funding," Vercler
said. "The interesting thing is, everyone's
come to the same conclusion." Warfel served on Unit
7's school board for 10 years, and he said that experience gave him
an education about funding issues. "We were having
steady challenges matching the district's income and expenses,"
he said. "We went through two cycles of bust and survival and busted
again based on referendums that kept us from doing terrible things. "What we did with
CHIEF is change the discussion level considerably," Warfel
said. "Back in the late '80s, few legislators viewed property tax
as the real problem. We put together an alliance of more than 125 groups,
we all sat down together and as a result of that, the Ikenberry
Commission and EFAB, the discussion now starts from the point that overreliance on property tax is part of the roblem." "This isn't raising
taxes," Martire said. "It's shifting
the burden. (Gov. Rod) Blagojevich has said he's the education governor.
He has said he won't raise taxes. I think it will be hard to walk away
from this idea with its bipartisan support. Property tax has to be a
component, especially in affluent communities. This proposal balances
the portfolio." Vercler of the Farm Bureau has concerns about Martire's corporate income tax increase proposal. "We generally have
concerns about the business climate in the state and the tendency to
turn to business to raise revenue that could be raised through broader
taxes," Vercler said. But he said the Farm Bureau's "not afraid
to say we will support increases in income tax if it generates more
money for education and a reduction in property taxes." Winkel said he hopes action on the pending state legislation
will come sooner rather than later. "I expect to have
a debate, and then we can continue to push this along," he said.
"We've been talking about doing this for 60 years. It would make
the system fairer and more sound, and we'd
still be a low tax state. " "The main stumbling
block is the governor," Winkel said.
"He refuses to consider structural changes. He wants to continue
with one-time revenue fixes. As (House Speaker Michael) Madigan has
said, and I agree with him, that bag of tricks is empty." Advances make a difference for children with vision loss
By Beth
Finke, Special to the Tribune, June 20, 2004 Nine-year-old Anna Walsh entered her classroom, slapped a 3-inch thick
Braille book on her desk, and announced, "I finished `Ramona's
World'!" Her classmates were unimpressed. Unfazed, Anna continued. "My grandma didn't even know I was still
awake." Slowly the din of Braille machines and talking electronics
grew quiet. Anna fingered her talking watch. "I was up until 10:42
p.m.!" she concluded triumphantly. The class cheered. Anna, born blind, is one of eight south suburban children who attend
classes in a resource room for the visually impaired in a Crestwood
elementary school. Such children are benefiting from new technology,
teaching methods and laws that have revolutionized the way visually
impaired children are taught. Thirty years ago, public school students who were blind were sent to
state residential schools or bused to resource rooms -- like the one
Anna attends at Nathan Hale Elementary School -- throughout their entire
education. The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, passed in
1975, created an option for blind or visually impaired children: enrolling
in their neighborhood schools. The law guarantees children with disabilities a free public education
in the least restrictive environment appropriate for each child. Amendments
made to the law in 1997 state that students who are blind or visually
impaired should receive as much of their education as possible in a
general education classroom following the regular curriculum. Like Anna, Sandra Murillo started primary school attending a resource
room for students with visual impairments. As she progressed, she was
slowly phased into classes with her sighted peers. Now the 16-year-old
honor student attends Thornwood High School in South Holland, where
she finds her locker each day and negotiates the cafeteria line -- tray
in one hand, white cane in the other. Low numbers Murillo -- like many others -- is the only blind student in her school.
Illinois had 2,264 children enrolled in 2003-04 who met the legal definition
of blindness, not including students attending private schools or those
with multiple disabilities, said Barbara Perkis, director of the Illinois
Instructional Materials Center for students with visual disabilities,
in Chicago. Another 600 to 800 qualify as visually impaired, she said. There were 3,909 deaf children, 28,363 children with mental retardation,
and 139,582 children with learning disabilities enrolled in Illinois
public schools in 2002-03, the latest school year for which figures
are available, said Beth Hanselman, division supervisor for special
education services for the Illinois State Board of Education. Fewer than 33 universities in the country offer programs to train instructors
who work with the visually impaired, said Mary Ann Siller, director
of the American Foundation for the Blind's National Education Program,
in Dallas. "There's a significant shortage of qualified teachers,"
she said. "The country currently needs at least an additional 5,000
teachers of students with visual impairments." Those who work with the visually impaired include orientation and mobility
instructors, who teach techniques for safe, independent travel, often
using a white cane; and teachers who instruct students in Braille, keep
them abreast of assistive technology, and provide materials to use in
regular classrooms, such as Braille worksheets. Northern Illinois University in DeKalb has a visual disabilities program
that helps keep most of northern Illinois free from teacher shortages. "There are vacancies now and then," said Jodi Sticken, orientation
and mobility director at NIU. "But I would be very surprised to
find out there are any visually impaired kids in northern Illinois who
aren't getting vision services." School districts in some Illinois cities, such as Chicago and Evanston,
hire their own special education staff. Others form special education
cooperatives with neighboring districts. Anna Walsh's home school district
-- Prairie-Hills Elementary School District 144 in Markham -- and Sandra
Murillo's district -- Thornton Township High Schools District 205 in
South Holland -- are among 17 districts that contract with Exceptional
Children Have Opportunities. Teachers travel The cooperative, known as ECHO,employs a team of vision specialists
who travel among schools. ECHO staffs the resource room that Anna attends. Chicago Public Schools has 10 resource rooms exclusively for the visually
impaired. That number will decline to seven in the 2004-05 school year
as more such children attend neighborhood schools, said Kathy Kinsey,
vision coordinator for Chicago Public Schools. "I think it's good for kids to be included -- it's wonderful to
have the kids in neighborhood schools," Kinsey said. Still, Kinsey said she can't imagine a time when resource programs
are eliminated altogether. Other school districts and cooperatives see it differently. The resource
room for the North Suburban Special Education District, for example,
serves children with all sorts of disabilities rather than just those
who are blind. Seven-year-old Alan Brint, blind from birth, spent his kindergarten
year being bused from his Highland Park home to the district's resource
room in Red Oak School, also in Highland Park. This year, however, the
1st grader walks to his neighborhood school with his brother Zacko,
10, a 4th grader. "For Alan to be in that resource room with all these kids who
need other help -- he never really fit into that," said Alan's
mother, Betsy Brint. Alan has a one-on-one aide at Indian Trails School in Highland Park
and receives additional help from an itinerant Braille teacher, an orientation
and mobility instructor and other specialists. Although Alan's mother
is pleased with his education, she regrets that her son has so few opportunities
to learn special skills alongside other children who are blind. "I would never take him out of his home school," she said.
"But I'd love to give him the opportunity to have some learning
in that other environment as well." The 1997 reauthorization of the federal disabilities education act
requires that no matter where they go to school, all students who receive
specialized instructional services because of a visual impairment must
be taught Braille. The House and Senate have passed versions of bills reauthorizing the
law, but no talks have been scheduled on a final version of the bill.
The Senate version, approved in mid-May, contains language that strengthens
the wording requiring types of instruction for the blind and visually
impaired, Sticken said. The Illinois Instructional Materials Center provides Braille textbooks
to Illinois students with visual disabilities. It is funded by the State
Board of Education and located at the Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind,
1850 W. Roosevelt Rd. It also provides Braillers, which are similar
to upright typewriters and have six buttons the size of half dollars
where the keyboard would be. In addition, the center provides assistive technology and other special
materials free to Illinois schools and agencies that educate the blind
or visually impaired. Just as computers and other technology have affected learning for sighted
students, personal digital assistants, word processing and the Internet
have changed the ways blind students do schoolwork. Heavy machines less common Years ago high school students who used Braille might have gone to
class hoisting 16-pound Braille machines under their arms. Today the
Braille notetakers students slip into their backpacks are smaller and
lighter than laptop computers. Words are typed in Braille by manipulating
the machine's six keys, and the work is checked either by listening
to a speech synthesizer or by feeling a display that shows each line
in Braille. Students can emboss a Braille copy onto paper, print a copy in ink
for the teacher, listen to electronic text downloaded from the Internet,
cyber-chat with friends and do research on the Web. "Braille notetakers have opened a new world for some of our students,"
said Mario Cortesi, a citywide itinerant special education teacher and
assistive technology specialist for Chicago Public Schools. "But
notetakers are complicated to learn. They're not for everyone. They
require some sophistication in their use, and some decent cognitive
ability. Usually it's the upper-grade or high school students who get
them." Murillo is one of those students. The technology practically eliminates
barriers to her classes that rely on essays or stories, such as English
or social studies. In geometry, however, learning can be far more complicated. Using raised-line
drawings to read graphics, push pins and rubber bands to form angles,
and special paper and pens to create diagrams, Murillo has a 96 percent
average in geometry so far. "My textbook is 63 volumes," she said, opening one page of
her Braille math book to demonstrate how big the raised-line drawings
can be. Beth Finke lost her sight at age 26. A Chicago resident, she is a writer
and public speaker on topics that include the Americans with Disabilities
Act, training with guide dogs and other issues concerning the blind. State
leaders meet again, claim they are close to reaching budget
solution By Melanie Coffee, Associated
Press Writer, Daily Chronicle Blagojevich spokeswoman
Cheryle Jackson acknowledged the governor might consider lowering
his education proposal by $50 million if the other negotiators also
agree to make compromises. "Whether or not
he considers something different from his original proposal depends
on how flexible others are," she said. "It's one thing among
many that are on the table." House Speaker Michael
Madigan, D-Chicago, has led the opposition to Blagojevich's proposals
to raise money by ending some business tax breaks and dipping into dozens
of special-purpose government funds. Madigan has called for smaller
increases - or none at all - in spending on education and health care
for the poor. Madigan said Friday's
meeting had been productive but gave little sign that he was willing
to make concessions. "Most of the progress
is coming with the governor realizing that you cannot borrow and spend
money that the state does not have," Madigan said. Blagojevich and the
four leaders met for nearly four hours in the governor's offices in
Without a new budget,
the state can't pay its employees or provide certain services. Blagojevich originally
proposed a $54 billion state budget, including $1 billion more for education
and Medicaid. Madigan and Republicans have said that plan depends too
much on borrowing money. However, Blagojevich
contended Friday that he could consider other methods of raising revenue. "I have always
said that we had an open mind about how to pay for those priorities,"
Blagojevich said. The governor and the
four leaders would not provide details on the progress made in Friday's
meeting. But She said there is still
a gap of about $200 million between the spending and revenues that negotiators
have agreed upon. "We're on track
for a budget that will set the right kind of priorities and help the
people of David Dring,
spokesman for House Republican leader Tom Cross, said the governor indicated
he might be willing to scale back the education increase and put some
of that money into programs that benefit Cross, of "We want to see
some cuts, we want modest spending, we want to take care of education's
needs, we want to hold the line on taxes," he said. Blagojevich said he
considered forcing lawmakers to return to Associated Press writers
Christopher Wills and Ryan Keith in Will tort fund lawsuit open floodgates? Phil Weber, State education officials
are worried that a threatened lawsuit against Quincy Public Schools
could be a sign of things to come for other districts. This,
and a similar suit in "The school code
doesn't explicitly prohibit that use," said Karen Craven, the ISBE
director of public information. "It's a matter of interpretation
by the school district. In the future, it will probably be subject to
interpretation by the courts." Craven was unsure how
many school districts use tort funds to help pay salaries, but she said
it is probably a large number. Teachers and other school employees are
often considered the first line of defense against accidents and injuries
to students, so many districts began paying a small portion of their
salaries — usually 2 to 5 percent — from their tort funds
when the economy dipped about three years ago. About 80 percent of
Slattery believes that
as many as 250 school districts in If this spending is
allowed to continue, Slattery contends, it will cause districts to further
abuse the law under the guise of risk management. For example, he said
some districts might choose to buy football helmets with tort money
because helmets protect athletes from injury. Another district could
buy new carpeting because the old floor covering was worn and could
cause people to trip, he said. Slattery has legal action
pending against the "It's not a correct
reading of the statute. Risk management includes safety expenses,"
such as paying employees for their contributions to the school's overall
safety, Florey said. "School districts are, unfortunately, accidents
waiting to happen. School employees spend a lot of their time preventing
those accidents." If the lawsuits are
successful, the districts could be forced to give the plaintiffs a refund
equal to the portion of their tort levy tax bill that was improperly
used. In For the average Slattery said he plans
to file his lawsuit against The "That case up there
is far enough ahead of us that it will be decided and there will be
some guidelines handed down," Gorman said. "If he loses, he'll
appeal. And, certainly, if the school loses, they will appeal."
School
funding group to give governor an 'F' Linda Lutton, Daily
Southtown, Education funding reform
advocates plan to rally outside Gov. Rod Blagojevich's Fair Funding for Illinois
Schools, a new parent group, plans to hand the governor a giant report
card with a failing grade for fairness in school funding. Earlier this year, the
national education journal Education Week gave The rally comes as lawmakers
and the governor wrangle over the state's budget, including funding
for schools. Organizers will have
a video camera on hand for parents and students to record messages to
Blagojevich. Participants also will
be able to grade their lawmakers. "We're suggesting that people
write report cards with good grades on them to legislators who have
been strong advocates of education," said Faith Spencer, an organizer.
Spencer recommended
giving high marks to supporters of a bill sponsored by state Sen. James
Meeks of Spencer and others will
turn in a petition signed by 3,500 people from more than 140 Organizers will congregate
between Blagojevich's Call Met with Optimism, Concern in Region
/ By Caleb Hale, Gov. Rod Blagojevich's
call for a special legislative session, beginning today, is drumming
up both optimism and concern among With one full week separating
"It sounds to me
like the governor and the leaders of the congress have reached some
sort of tentative agreement," he said. "Without knowing what
the budget says, it's good. But there is a caveat, because anytime the
government is in session the state is at risk." "I don't know who's fault it is, but if they do the right thing and quit
worrying about the votes, then everyone would be ahead of the game,"
he said. One
thing that remains in question for However, the World Shooting
Complex, designated to be built in Sparta, is a project with a little
more urgency attached, says Rep. Dan Reitz, D-Steeleville. "We need the funding
this year because of the contract we have with the Amateur Trapshooting
Association," Reitz said. The association will
be holding a major competition at the yet-to-be-built trap shooting
site in August 2006. Reitz said funding needs to be on time to make
sure the project is finished by the competition, which he says could
bring up to $35 million to the region, according to a study by the Reitz said he didn't
expect coming to a final budget would be an easy task this year, nor
does he expect next year's budget to be any easier. The governor has spent
the past couple of weeks stressing the importance that Janet Ulrich, assistant
regional superintendent for Another cut from this
year's budget would only create more hardship, she said. "I think
it will affect the programs and each district is going to have to reassess
how they want to spend the money," she said. Jackson and Perry County
Regional Superintendent Donald Brewer said anticipation of the final
outcome may leave him a little worried about some of his school districts,
but he is glad legislators might be zeroing in on a decision. "Anytime they get
together, something good might happen," Brewer said. Wendler said he can only hope the state will approve what is
essentially a "flat" budget for higher education, with no
increases or decreases from last fiscal year. The chancellor said
more cuts in funding only means more tough decisions at the campus level.
"It's going to force us to re-evaluate equipment purchases,"
Wendler said. "Dependent upon where the
budget ends up, we may have to make some personnel decisions." Why thousands
of retired teachers could lose their health insurance John Patterson, Medical coverage for
those former teachers and an additional 8,000 of their dependents ends
June 30 when the current benefits program expires. So far, lawmakers
have not taken action to extend coverage, prompting frustration and
fears throughout the education community. "With so many legislators
facing re-election, we cannot imagine they will return to their districts
without providing for continuation of health insurance for retired teachers,"
said Yet, this is one of
several high-profile issues stuck in political limbo as legislative
leaders and Gov. Rod Blagojevich remain deadlocked over a state budget. Hoping to break the
logjam, Blagojevich is calling lawmakers back to the Capitol today for
a special session. Doing so also ensures they'll get $95 a day in meal
and hotel money, a perk that disappeared when the General Assembly missed
its May 31 deadline. The daily cost to taxpayers for lawmakers' lodging
and food for the special session is $16,815 and tops $18,000 once mileage
is added. Blagojevich defended
the expense saying the amount "pales in comparison to all the other
costs that are imposed on the taxpayers because this process has not
been able to give the people of this state what they should get and
what they ought to get and what we owe them, and that is a budget." But the special session
is just for the budget. Many other issues, like retired teachers' insurance,
remain on the table. Lawmakers also have not changed election law so
President Bush can appear on the All this was supposed
to have been decided by May 21, the deadline lawmakers set for their
spring session. They missed that deadline and then the May 31 deadline
as well. After that date, enacting a budget or anything else requires
support from 60 percent of the House and Senate membership. That means
Democrats must reach across the aisle for Republican votes to get anything
done. Now lawmakers are on
the verge of bumping up against the July 1 start of the state's next
budget year. If the fiscal year starts without a budget in place, it
could wreak havoc with state paychecks and payments to state vendors
while possibly shutting state offices and historic attractions. Meanwhile, retired teachers
sit and wait to see if they'll still have insurance. Teachers unions
and other interested parties negotiated a deal to keep coverage in place
and pay for it. But that deal was not approved before lawmakers left
the Capitol earlier this month after it became clear a budget deal was
not forthcoming. "It is alarming
that something like this that everyone agrees to ... could be sidetracked
by the fight over the budget," said Donna Baiocchi,
executive director of the suburban education group ED-RED. Some lawmakers have
grown increasingly frustrated at being shut out while legislative leaders
and the governor meet behind closed doors in recent weeks with little
progress. "They understand
that the stakes are high and they ought to be able to negotiate some
resolution to this," said state Sen. Susan Garrett, a Lake Forest
Democrat. "If they don't, legislators such as myself
are going to revolt. I personally am not going to stand by and watch
this happen from a distance." Last week, the president
of the Illinois Retired Teachers Association sent a letter to Blagojevich
urging him to bring lawmakers back to the Capitol to make sure retired
teachers are covered. "The health and
welfare of 50,000 Illinoisans will be in jeopardy come Blagojevich was optimistic
that a budget deal and other issues would be handled before July 1,
and he didn't rule out calling additional special sessions to address
non-budget issues if needed. Taking
a different look at Ryan's sex scandal Column by Phil Kadner, Daily Southtown, Sharon Voliva
and Michelle Moses had a front-row seat at the Jack Ryan sex scandal
on Tuesday. I mentioned the sex
scandal to get your attention. People tend to stop
reading when they hear about the issue Voliva
and Moses were trying to bring to the public's attention: school funding.
The two south suburban
women, along with about 100 other people, were on the plaza of the Jack Ryan, the Republican
candidate for U.S. Senate, was also there. He had called a news
conference to answer questions about allegations that he had taken his
former wife, Jeri Ryan, to sex clubs. "We were setting
up for the rally when we see all these TV news vans arriving,"
said Voliva, a resident of "We've never had
so many reporters at one of our rallies," Voliva
said. "We were all asking each other what we had done right this
time." A security guard at
the "Our main concern
was whether we would be allowed to continue with our rally," Voliva said. "The security guard said we had the permit,
and we were entitled to demonstrate." Tuesday was report card
day in "We had this report
card made up that was about 8 feet high," Voliva
said. "It had Gov. Rod Blagojevich's name at the top and one grade
on it, an 'F' for education funding equity. "That's the grade
the state was given by Education Week magazine." As the rally started
around "Not one of those
people seemed interested in the rally," said Moses, a school board
member in Oak Lawn Community High School District 229. Moses said several organizers
of the rally went over to the reporters and asked them what they were
doing. "They told us they
were waiting for Jack Ryan to show up," Moses said. "So Sharon
and some of the other women said since they were there anyway, why not
cover the rally for school funding reform." Voliva said some of the TV and radio people politely refused
her request. At least one "I told him that
no matter what his personal views were he ought to be interested in
covering the news, Voliva said.
"He told me he just wasn't going to cover the rally because
he didn't agree with our position." Most of the other reporters
simply ignored the school funding folks, according to Voliva
and Moses. Then Ryan arrived for
his news conference. "They all gathered
around him, and we were already chanting and shouting, so we just moved
a little closer hoping to get some coverage," Voliva
said. According to Voliva and Moses, the chanting got so loud that the reporters
covering the Ryan news conference couldn't hear what he was saying.
Ryan moved away a few
steps. The school funding folks
moved with him and kept chanting. "One radio reporter
later called one of the organizers of our event and told her we were
very rude because we had ruined her tape of the Ryan news conference,"
Voliva said. "When she got back
to the studio, all of Ryan's comments were apparently inaudible."
Voliva and Moses called me to ask the same question. Why is Jack Ryan's sex
scandal, which didn't even involve sex, more important than school funding?
"We're talking
about the quality of education for thousands of schoolchildren in "But we can never
get the kind of news coverage that Jack Ryan did because he went to
a sex club." The question actually
is this: Is the public more interested
in school funding or a juicy sex scandal? People often complain
to me that the news media never focuses on the issues in political races. Well, there's usually
a lot of information available, but people like to focus on the gossip.
It's fun to talk about
and doesn't require any thought. School funding is boring.
And there are no easy answers. State school
chief critical in Tough on governor: Blagojevich
sought control of education bureaucracy By Ted Slowik,
Herald News Staff Writer, "We lost about
five months of honest debate. History will show it was a lost opportunity,"
state Superintendent Robert Schiller told a crowd of about 50 during
a Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce and Industry luncheon at Harrah's
casino. Schiller said Blagojevich's
failed attempt to create an education department under the governor's
control proved to be unconstitutional, as Schiller had insisted all
along. The move diverted attention from addressing the state's failure
to adequately fund education and the disparity between rich and poor
school districts, Schiller said. While Blagojevich sought
to overhaul education by streamlining administrative duties, the resulting
Senate Bill 3000 would let governors replace seats on the nine-member
state board of education and make other changes that some legislators
have called "window dressing." Schiller quoted Shakespeare's
"Macbeth" to illustrate his point about Blagojevich's attention-grabbing
tactics, citing a passage that reads, "Life's but a walking shadow,
a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then
is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing." "I won't say it
was a tale told by an idiot," Schiller said, "(but) it was
time that should have been spent focusing on the budget." The governor and Legislature
could reduce education funding's reliance
on property taxes by increasing the state's income or sales taxes, the
superintendent said. Instead, the prevailing sentiment in "(Raising state
taxes) is a difficult political act to undertake, particularly at a
time when one is seeking election to political office," Schiller
said. Schiller said people
should let their legislators know that they would support decisions
that address the state's structural deficit, even if the choices seem
politically unpopular. "We can't afford
to vote good legislators out of office because they do the right thing,"
Schiller said. "We are at a critical
junction that is going to affect education in Unresolved budget puts school funding amount in question By Paul L. Mikolajczyk, DeKalb Daily Chronicle
Staff Writer, A pledge to increase
state funding for public schools remains in limbo,
and the amount may not be as large as promised by legislators debating
With the end of the
fiscal year rapidly approaching, Gov. Rod Blagojevich recalled a special
session of the Legislature to begin today and last until the General
Assembly and the governor conclude their fight over the budget. A victim of the fight
could be the promised $250 increase in the per-student education foundation
funding level set by the state, according to Last year, the state
set the funding level at $4,810. The state's public school districts
received whatever portion of that amount, per student,
that they couldn't cover with local revenues, largely money collected
through local property taxes. In the 2003-2004 budget, the Legislature provided a $250 raise in the foundation
level. Many school districts have prepared their budgets for the '04-'05
year based on a similar increase. Burzynski said he would like to see more funding for education
but the state "has a lot of issues to
deal with," specifically, trying to produce a balanced budget without
increasing taxes. "We'll be in a
real pressure cooker," he said about the expected environment that
lawmakers in the capital will face until a budget is approved. Rep. Bob Pritchard,
R-Hinckley, said that feedback he received from other state representatives
also suggests that schools will get less than the $400 million the governor
promised them during his State of the State address. "This whole process
should have been resolved months ago," he said, expressing his
frustration with the failure of himself, fellow lawmakers and the governor
to agree on a budget before the May 31 deadline passed. Pritchard said that
while both the House and the Senate have agreed on a plan to provide
the $250 increase per student, the governor has not acted on it because
of disagreements over where the money will come from. While against sales
tax and income tax increases, Pritchard told the Chronicle Wednesday
that he remains especially opposed to fees collected by the state that
he said are just another form of income tax. He plans to fight the
more than 200 new fees the governor has proposed while working to provide
education funding for A spokeswoman for the
governor's office counters the claims that the additional $250 per student
can't be provided in the 2005 budget. "It's important
to the governor for the state to increase education spending,"
said Abby Ottenhoff. She said the governor
has had discussions with the leaders of the General Assembly and is
positive about the potential for an increase. Ottenhoff made no mention of new fees to produce the money needed
for education. Closing unfair tax loopholes and consolidating surpluses
from dedicated state funds will help produce the funding, she said. =========================================================================== NATIONAL More flaws of No Child
Left Behind Act This year, hundreds
of Under the No Child Left
Behind Act, that forces school districts to offer parents the
opportunity to transfer their children out of those "inadequate"
school. While school districts
must brace for the worst by setting aside funding for busing (as required
by the federal act), parents are going to have a tough time figuring
out what their options are under the complex law. "Choice,"
in this case, offers no guarantee that students will be better educated. In The No Child Left Behind Act is so full of folly that it does more to confound
parents than to inform them. It has done more to misdirect funds than
to improve the quality of education. Reforms are badly needed. Here are some of the
reasons parents are confused: Choice can be defined under the law
by the local school district. Under another federal
act, children with learning disabilities can apply for a special program
only if they perform under grade level. Under NCLB, the schools these
children attend cannot make AYP if any of the learning-disabled students
perform under grade level. If a school fails to meet AYP because one
or more learning-disabled students fail to perform at grade level, the
whole school is labeled inadequate, and all schoolchildren are eligible
for transfers. Busing schoolchildren across district
not only drains resources but could actually increase racial segregation
in schools. It could also increase economic segregation. · Parents who choose
to send their children to another school (public or private) are not
guaranteed bus transportation beyond a year. Under the law, if the initial
school makes AYP the following year, the bus funding is no longer required. If improving student achievement is
the goal, the No Child Left Behind Act has not worked. The absurd rationale
that determines who can and cannot transfer demonstrates yet another
of its failings. The law that confuses parents and reroutes spending
away from public classrooms is in need of revision. Tough
standards make good students Last week's graduations
and promotions throughout the region turned out some of the best-educated
students in a very long time here in Yet, some school board
members want exemptions from the tough new federal education plan known
as No Child Left Behind. They say the act will leave too many schools
out of federal funding. Under the act, Schools must meet rigorous standards
in a yearly assessment that leaves little room between pass and fail.
We agree the act needs tweaking but overall, it's doing its job. We met with members
of the California School Boards Association who want to tweak some provisions
of the act, although they agree with the principle behind No Child.
It's the doing that's difficult. Near impossible in some cases, they
report. Readers already know
we agree with those educators who say pupils with severe learning disabilities
should be removed from the annual school scoring under the act while
still being tested to gauge progress. Also, we believe the
participation rate of 95 percent under the federal plan may be an unreachable
bar in Association members
argue federal education officials should compare the testing and allow
states such as However, we support
much of the federal act, including testing students within subgroups
to gain a better picture of how at-risk students such as those with
limited-English proficiency and those from low socioeconomic populations
progress. Also allowing parents
to transfer their children from a low- performing school under the federal
guidelines is a necessary component. While area districts
have long given lip-service to similar state-mandated transfers, genuine
school choice never materialized. Once the threat of school vouchers
passed, so did districts' interest in allowing students to transfer.
No Child makes good on that broken promise. The bone of contention
seems to be that school districts must provide transportation for students
who transfer. That may chafe, but the answer is clear: improve or make
do without Title 1 funding. The association also
wants to ax the best-qualified teacher rule. Seems to us, everyone should
want the most qualified instructors in the classroom, especially in
middle- and high- school math and science courses. School boards ought
to be looking after the needs of students, not keeping underqualified
teachers employed. We'd like to see federal
education officials sit down with those in the trenches to gain a better
understanding of the problems inherent in the one- size-fits-all aspect
of the act. Revisiting the act ought not be
out of the question if enough states believe it necessary. Overall,
however, we give No Child Left Behind high marks. 3 N.E. states join forces
to obey law James Vaznis,
The Tight on money and the
manpower to do it alone, three of New Hampshire, Rhode
Island, and Vermont teamed up to comply with the federal No Child Left
Behind Act, a sweeping education law that requires annual testing of
students in grades 3 through 8. Yet the three states
also are among those nationwide that have questioned the costs of the
act's stringent requirements. Fearful of funding any of the federal
testing requirements, the New Hampshire Legislature cut $3 million from
its state testing program last year, forcing the state Department of
Education to eliminate the writing, science, and social studies components
of its assessment tests this year. The three states, calling
themselves the New England Compact, will try out the exams for reading
and math in October and will test more than 208,000 students in grades
3 through 8 starting in December 2005. They have contracted with Measured
Progress of Dover, N.H., for $33.4 million over the next six years.
Peter McWalters,
''We need to add a couple
tests," she said. ''We're more than halfway there." The No Child Left Behind
Act was unveiled shortly after President Bush took office. At the time,
lawmakers and federal education officials discussed the idea of states
combining resources to administer the tests. But the federal government
shortened the timeline for states to comply with the law, making it
difficult for collaboration, said David Shreve, head of the education
committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures in ''It's always harder
to collaborate on something than doing it yourself," Shreve said.
''It's easier for me to clean my kitchen than to get my 12-year-old
daughter to help me out." The three states spent all of last year comparing their
standards in reading, writing, and math. Their academic standards, fortunately,
had a lot of overlap -- the benefits of more than a decade of national
education reform. The three states are
also developing future combined tests for science and a high-school
level exam. The US Department of Education is assisting the states with
grant money to develop the testing system. ''It's smart,"
said Darla Marburger, deputy assistant secretary
for policy in the office of elementary and secondary education. ''It
makes sense to work together." The United Teachers of Dade filed a
lawsuit Monday against the Miami-Dade school district, citing untamed
mold growth, airborne fiberglass particles and sewer gas seepage that
the union said may have caused health problems for students and teachers. The circuit-court suit, which does not
seek monetary damages, charges that the School Board and outgoing Superintendent
Merrett Stierheim responded inadequately
to repeated complaints by teachers. The suit says that if mold, water leakage
and rodent problems at four schools are not cleaned up by the end of
summer school, the union will seek to have those schools closed under
public-nuisance laws. The schools named in the suit are Lakeview
Elementary and Norland Senior High in Northwest
Miami-Dade County, Hammocks Middle in ''When the health of teachers and students
is involved, you can't move at glacial speed,'' said union chief Mark
Richard. Richard stressed that the UTD is not
making medical claims about the mold and other health problems at the
schools, but added that the union has been receiving anecdotal complaints
from its members since 2001. `ONGOING ISSUE' The school district's business chief,
Jack Surash, said his office has been working with the union on
improving indoor air quality. ''I think we've understood their concerns
and continued to work on this issue,'' he said. ``There's not a silver
bullet for indoor air quality. It's an ongoing issue, especially in
this kind of a climate where you have high humidity.'' At a press conference Monday, teachers
from the four schools told of wheezing students and ailing colleagues,
some of whom went on disability for respiratory illnesses. Bobbie Barnwell, a special-education
teacher and volleyball coach at ''It was an eye-opener for the school,''
she said. ``I was one of the healthiest people there.'' Lakeview Elementary teacher Nadine Tobgy said she noticed the problem this spring when her second-grade
class was moved to a music room for a day. After a few hours, many students'
eyes watered and their noses ran. ''They were all running for Kleenex,
and mucus was gushing from their noses,'' Tobgy
said. As sniffling and nose-blowing continued, ''it began to dawn on
me that maybe the mold was having an effect,'' she said. Photos from Lakeview, displayed at the
press conference, showed water damage, brightly colored coronas of mold
in classrooms and moldy insulation panels. David Pollack, an attorney representing
the union, said the School Board has been too quick to assume that problems
have been adequately addressed. District spokesman John Schuster said
he could not comment because the school attorneys had not seen the suit
yet. But he added: ``This is a bit of a surprise. [The UTD] had an opportunity
for input.'' PROGRESS REPORTED Over the last year, Schuster said, the
school system has made progress at North Miami High and Hammocks Middle.
At However, a Miami-Dade Health Department
report dated April 8 said peeling paint, rodents and rodent droppings
still plague the cafeteria and classrooms. Pam Pedlow,
a union organizer and teacher on leave from Norland,
said that principals often try to address the problems, but that the
urgency falls apart at the district level. ''Principals . . . report the problem
to the next person down the chain, and that person reports it to the
next and the next,'' she said. ``Where that chain breaks down is still
a mystery.'' Charlie
Goodyear, San Francisco Chronicle, Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation Monday night that will provide
$6o million to the ailing Vallejo school district -- the second largest
such bailout in California. Under
Senate Bill 1190, the state Superintendent of Public Instruction will
assume control of the University is seeking to pull charter school's
plug By
Jake Wagman of the Post-Dispatch, Hundreds
of students at the school's two campuses could be left in the lurch
when the school year begins in the fall. A
litany of problems has been revealed in the past year at St. Louis Charter
Academies, ranging from nepotism and ineligible students to high faculty
turnover and low academic performance. The
Post-Dispatch reported in March that a corporation tied to one of the
school's founders had a $120,000 contract for marketing services with
the school. The
State
law allows a sponsor to revoke a charter if the terms of the agreement
between the two are violated. Rolla Chancellor Gary Thomas said a member
of the university's legal staff told him other issues exist that could
be cause for revocation but that the financial problems were the most
straightforward. "Hey,
that one's the clearest," Thomas said. "Why muddy it up?"
In
order to revoke a charter, the sponsoring institution must give at least
60 days' notice. If school starts before that period is up, the school
may finish that year. The Rolla campus mailed its notice of revocation
on Monday, 62 days before the school is scheduled to resume classes.
Charter Academies has two weeks to request a hearing before Rolla campus
officials. School officials could ask those officials to reconsider.
If they refuse, the school could appeal to a judge. In
the five years since charter schools have operated in When
the school that would become St. Louis Charter Academies opened in 2001,
the coalition of clergy, politicians and educators who backed the school
attracted national attention. The Wall Street Journal called the venture
"the chance of a lifetime" for In its first year, the school operated tuition-free,
cobbling out an operating budget from federal funds and other sources. Before the year was over, Rolla offered to sponsor the
academies as a charter school. Charter
schools are public schools that receive state money but are operated
by private boards. The St. Louis Charter Academies has campuses at Bishop
Lawrence M. Wooten, president of the school's board and one of the school's
founders, said Monday that he had not received the revocation letter
from Rolla. He said he plans to meet with Thomas. "He
doesn't have the full picture," said Wooten, pastor at the Williams
Temple of the That
management company, Arizona-based Connie
Schlifer, who has two children at the school's
south campus, said parents have not been given notice that the schools
might close. "My
youngest will just be starting first grade, and he was all looking forward
to the new teacher he'd have and seeing his friends again," Schlifer said. "I really don't know what we are going
to do." DISD aims to prevent, not simply deter,
student misconduct By
KENT FISCHER, The From
any computer with Internet access, A. Maceo
Smith High School Principal Dwain Govan can
log on to his school's network of 16 security cameras and see what's
happening on campus. The
cameras, Mr. Govan said, have proved to be
a deterrent and have helped administrators catch troublemakers in the
act. Mr. Govan, however, readily acknowledges that security cameras
are not the most effective way to make schools safer. "Many
times, [trouble] starts in the neighborhood and they bring it to school,"
he said of the offenders. "Many
times, they don't have a male figure in their lives to talk to. We have
to sit them down and counsel them, and we definitely would like to see
more parental involvement." As
the Measures
like using metal detectors and drug-sniffing dogs can give parents and
teachers a false sense of security. The most effective crime prevention
programs don't involve machines, dogs or drug tests. "There's
no question that when kids feel connected to the schools and communities,
they're significantly less likely to take the wrong path," said
Jean O'Neil, the director of Research and Evaluation with the National
Crime Prevention Council, which created McGruff
the Crime Dog. "We
need to treat kids in the context of their schools, neighborhoods and
homes, not in a vacuum." That's
the primary reason DISD's multifaceted school
safety initiative contains a healthy dose of counseling programs, extracurriculars
and psychological services. It's also why DISD Superintendent Mike Moses
is calling on community groups and their leaders to get involved. "Our
schools are not being respected and honored as safe havens for children,
and I think that is a community problem," Dr. Moses said. "It
appears that priority has slipped away in recent years, and we all must
do something about it." Last
week, administrators gave district trustees some startling information
regarding campus crime from the recently concluded school year. The
numbers were eye-popping: Aggravated assaults were up 33 percent; burglaries
up 75 percent; and student assaults on faculty members up 53 percent.
"This
is frightening," trustee Hollis Brashear said when he saw the statistics
Wednesday. 'They
get belligerent' Most
senior classes leave their schools a gift after graduation, like a new
marquee or scoreboard for the gym. A
rash of break-ins in the student parking lot at Bryan
Adams teacher Diane Birdwell said it's not so much the headline-grabbing
crimes that wear down teachers and morale. Those crimes are relatively
rare. Instead, it's the near-constant confrontations with disrespectful
and defiant students that teachers have the hardest time with. "If
I tell a kid to move along or to do something, they get belligerent,"
Ms. Birdwell said. "Verbal assaults are an everyday occurrence.
If I called Dr. Moses what kids call me, I'd be fired on the spot. Now,
why do I have to take that?" Ms.
Birdwell said educators simply want to be able to kick disruptive students
out of class and have them land in a program that will help them straighten
out and deter them from continued troublemaking. Many teachers feel
that those programs don't exist, so they quickly tire of fighting the
everyday battles, she said. "If
they would put teeth and painful consequences on both the kid and the
parents ... that would be a deterrent," she said. "But I see
very little rehabilitation, very little help from the community. We're
begging parents to wake up and see what their kids are up to."
Teacher
Hobie Hukill said
teachers are frustrated because they don't always get what they say
they need from administrators when confronting habitual troublemakers.
In short, teachers have a hard time kicking a kid out of class because
there's no other place for the student to go – the district's alternative
schools are filled to capacity with serious offenders. "We
have to be a heck of a lot more aggressive in nailing these kids early,"
Mr. Hukill said. "If they're allowed
to thumb their noses, then you're asking for chaos. It snowballs."
Chief's
view When
DISD Police Chief Manuel Vasquez dissected the district's end-of-the-year
crime reports, he noted that serious offenses – like aggravated
assaults and weapons incidents – made up only about 1 percent of
the total reports. The real spike, he said, was in classroom disruptions
and misconduct – the kinds of things Ms. Birdwell cited. But getting kids to change those behaviors means starting
young and often taking on roles that once were left to parents. "We
need to teach them how to make good decisions, and we need to build
their character," Chief Vasquez said. "Enforcement is not
the answer; intervention is. We need to refocus." Unanticipated
rise in the price of fuel forces districts to make unpopular decisions By
Joy Buchanan and David Haldane, Times Staff
Writers, Already
suffering from state budget cuts, many As
a result, experts say, school officials are faced with either cutting
bus service or passing increased costs on to parents, many of whom already
pay hefty fees. "You're
going to see a whole gamut of districts [increasing] fees," said
Bob Austin, a spokesman for the California Department of Education's
Office of Transportation. "That's an option. You'll have others
that reduce the service. Others will just bite the bullet and take the
money from somewhere else." Such
is the case in the Gas
prices In California have gone up 62% in the last year to about $2.32
per gallon, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. "It's
been quite a sudden spike," said Rodriguez, whose district has
spent more than $4 million on fuel this year to transport 75,000 students
a day, mostly to magnet schools, for free. Though
Even
in the best of times, he said, student transportation generally loses
money. And
when gas prices go up, he said, smaller school districts — including
about 65% of those in Thus
The
district is considering reducing the number of routes from 62 to 58
next year to help offset the costs. "It's hurting," said Michael
Fogerty, transportation director. "We just have to be
as efficient as possible." And
at The
district is taking what some consider another drastic step as well:
raising the price of school bus passes for the first time since 1997.
The cost will double, from $180 to $360 a year. "It was either
that or the classrooms," said Steve Umber, transportation director.
"We've really [delayed] this as long as we could." The
move has angered some parents, who say they may switch to their cars. "It's
going to force us to change our work schedules," said Kirsten Bowman,
who plans to get up earlier next fall to drive her children to school.
"We're not happy about it at all." Besides
the personal inconvenience, said Bowman, a lawyer for the California
Department of Transportation, the change will hurt the environment. "This
will increase traffic on the roadway and go against everything the state
is trying to do in terms of congestion relief, cars on the road and
preserving resources," she said. Greg
Stratton, a member of the Simi Valley Unified board, which serves more
than 21,000 students in eastern Stratton
said the school board had already requested a survey on how to deal
with rising costs, the results of which are due soon. "We're looking
at raising fees [and] cutbacks on routes without enough riders,"
he said. And
Conejo Valley Unified will be able to hold the line, but only
because of a contract that ties gas price increases to a local cost-of-living
index. "Our
costs only go up about 2, 2 1/2% a year," said Debbie Beauford,
a transportation specialist. "It looks as if we'll be able to continue
as we have been." "Every
time somebody raises or institutes new fees," he said, "our
phones start ringing. Parents are upset." School
officials in This
doesn't surprise Bowman. "What they're doing," she said, "is
forcing parents to bear the burden. We don't think that's fair." Fitness Classes Fall Short in Many Schools,
Panel Says By
ASHLEI N. STEVENS, New York Times, A
2001 survey found that 41 percent of elementary schools and 23 percent
of high schools did not provide regular physical education classes,
the report says. It also states that 55 percent of elementary schools
either have no playgrounds or cannot use them while 62 percent of middle
and high schools do not have a weight room. "I
think we're shortchanging kids who have a variety of talents, whether
it's in the arts or music or in athletics," said Eva S. Moskowitz,
the chairwoman of the committee, who said her panel had worked for the
last six months compiling information on the lack of sports and physical
education. Officials
agreed that many schools lacked adequate facilities, teachers and programs,
though they could not provide exact numbers. "For
years in this system, we've neglected fitness and physical education,"
said Lester W. Young Jr., senior executive for youth development and
school-community services at the Department of Education. "It's
taken a back seat to the other curriculums." He said the schools
needed more space and facilities, as well as trained staff. According
to the report, the Department of Education has proposed spending an
additional $338 million in capital funds for physical education in its
five-year plan beginning in 2005, up from the $3.1 million now allotted
in the 2000-04 plan. Ms.
Moskowitz said the increase would be a step forward but significantly
below the $992 million the City Council estimated that it would take
to update facilities in its own 2003 report on the subject. Ms.
Moskowitz's report also recommended reducing the size of physical
education classes, which often have as many as 50 students each. It
also calls for offering tax breaks to organizations that lend recreational
space to the schools. District's $30 million art trove stirs
debate Phila. schools have had the treasures for years. Principals
and parents worry about district plans. By
Susan Snyder, But
school district efforts to inventory the collection, conserve damaged
pieces, even offer works for gallery exhibition have angered school
administrators and parents, who want their art back. The
collection, much of it dating to the dawn of the 20th century through
the 1920s and 1930s, is spread throughout many of the district's 264
schools. There
are watercolors by Paul Remy, a painting by African American artist
Henry Ossawa Tanner, landscape and wilderness scenes by In
a sweeping effort, the School Reform Commission has hired experts to
inventory the art in every school and remove damaged pieces and those
in danger of being stolen. The commission is considering creating a
traveling show, publishing a book, printing cards and calendars, or
possibly opening a gallery at its headquarters, which could charge admission,
said James Nevels, School Reform Commission
chairman. So
far, more than 100 pieces have been removed from 40 schools, some art
found in closets, damaged and unappreciated. "They
found things worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in boiler rooms,"
one high-ranking district source said. The
district plans to restore the art and secure it. While
several officials said the cash-strapped district was not planning to
sell the art, Nevels would not rule it out. "The
disposition of the artwork will be examined by the SRC," he said
last night. "It could include a myriad of things, including the
sale. That is one of several options or combination of options." The
project, which has largely been conducted in secret for more than a
year, has created a stir in the schools. At
Over
the winter break, district workers removed the paintings and told the
staff that the art would be restored and returned. The foyer is still
bare, and parents and teachers are skeptical. "This
is a part of our school, a part of our heritage," said Robyn Sims,
2004-05 president of The
art is property of the district, which is responsible for securing and
protecting it, Nevels said. The
district has about 1,200 pieces of art, about 400 of which are particularly
valuable, said Paul Vallas, chief executive
officer. "We've
brought experts in to assess its value, stamp it, restore it, with an
eye toward returning it to the school," he said. At
The
district, aided by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the University
of Pennsylvania Museum, has moved the paintings and sculptures from
Wilson and the other schools, said chief of staff Natalye
Paquin. Vallas said
money had been appropriated to secure the art; he would not say how
much. Paquin said
the district was establishing an arts advisory council, which, among
other tasks, would be charged with how to raise money to help pay for
the art's restoration. In
Paquin said
she was not sure how much the At
At
Frankford High, principal Richard Mantell
is unhappy with the secrecy. When he returned from winter break, district
officials had ordered a locksmith to enter his office to take unframed
watercolors, donated to the school by artist Paul Remy, a 1930s Frankford
graduate. "You'd
think it was like a jewel heist," said Mantell,
who said he was irked that the district has not disclosed plans for
the art. "I'd
just like some information, and I have 300 or 400 alumni who are really
interested, too. It really stinks. It has stunk up the joint from day
one since they broke into the office." Paquin said
the district had tried to reach Mantell and
his assistant before entering. She also said the project needed to be
done in secret for security. District officials have heard about art
disappearing from the schools in the past, she said. "We
really didn't have a process in place for controlling our assets. That's
what this project is really about," she said. At
Art
experts have told parents that Principal
Jim McMillan said he is asked regularly about the missing paintings.
Portraits of Woodrow Wilson, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and
two paintings by Baum were among those taken by the district. "My
community is in an uproar," he said. "It's like ripping the
hearts out of a school when you take something that has been there for
so long." By
Greg Toppo, It's
too soon to tell whether President Bush's sweeping school reform law
will improve the nation's public education system, but nearly 2½ years
after Bush signed No Child Left Behind, a new survey shows that public
perceptions of schools are changing — sometimes for the worse —
and that education could be a powerful election-year issue. In
the survey released today by the Educational Testing Service, the world's
largest private educational research organization, the nation's public
schools take a bit of a beating at the hands of parents, while the general
public remains largely unmoved. The
percentage of parents who give Congress
approved No Child Left Behind in 2001; Bush signed it in January 2002.
The centerpiece of Bush's education agenda, it imposes strict testing
requirements on public schools and demands that the number of students
whose test scores show they can read and do math at grade level improve
each year. If schools don't pass muster, they risk being labeled "in
need of improvement." About
32% of schools now fall into that category. According
to the new survey, public schools actually rose slightly in the eyes
of adults in general since 2001; a few more adults gave schools a B
and fewer gave them a C. The percentage who gave schools a D or F was
unchanged. As in 2001, only 2% now give schools an A. The
survey also found that the public is split evenly on the merits of the
law: 39% have a favorable opinion, 38% unfavorable. That
suggests both Bush and presumptive Democratic presidential candidate
John Kerry could benefit from campaigning on — or against —
the law, says Les Francis, a testing service spokesman. "The
president can clearly take credit, in political terms, for having really
pushed this issue further on to the national agenda and to have his
bill identified with reform," he says. For
Kerry's purposes, he says, "the fact that there's a significant
level of disenchantment" with the law gives Kerry a chance to "hammer
away." The
favorable/unfavorable figures hold steady across political affiliations
and even within battleground states, Francis says. Paige:
Federal law makes education accessible to all Pam Easton, Star Telegram PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas
- U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige said Tuesday that the No Child
Left Behind Act sets out to rectify problems not addressed in the historic
Supreme Court decision that desegregated schools. "We still have
two worlds," Paige said, addressing the 10th annual The federal education
reforms, known as No Child Left Behind, give students the ability
to choose and attend higher performing schools, and is the centerpiece
of President Bush's domestic agenda. The reforms are considered
the most significant since 1965. The law sets out to ensure all minorities
and poor children can read and do math at grade level by 2014. It requires
districts to identify schools with weak reading and math test scores
and begin applying sanctions if the scores do not improve. In 1954, the Supreme
Court ruled in a case, known as Brown v. Board of Education, that schools
separated on the basis of race were unequal and unconstitutional because
they created a status of inferiority among minorities. "What we have learned
is it doesn't matter where you are sitting if what goes on in the classroom
isn't up to snuff," Paige said. "So that is why we have to
make sure that every single child has a highly qualified teacher." Getting qualified teachers
into classrooms, however, takes money, said Tom Kiley,
spokesman for U.S. Rep. George Miller, D.-Calif.,
the ranking Democrat on the Education Committee. Miller helped get the
education reforms passed and is among the supporters of No Child Left
Behind. "It really is ultimately
about civil rights," Kiley said. "It
really is about ensuring education for all children." But Kiley
said the No Child Left Behind Act has been underfunded
by $27 billion since it was enacted in 2002 and Republicans are shifting
the focus from criticism that the program hasn't been properly implemented
or funded. "The Bush administration
is doing things that basically undermine the bill," he said. "In
school districts across Paige said business
communities in some large urban cities are supporting the reforms and
that educational funding has been increased 36 percent by the Bush administration
since the president took office. "One of the greatest
barriers to closing the achievement gap is making excuses about different
reasons why we cannot," Paige said. He said funding has
been increased to support the reforms and that the government now approaches
the funding as "an investment rather than just a gift." Jeri Stone, executive
director of the Texas Classroom Teachers Association, said the efforts to close the achievement gap between white and minority students
seems to be working. "It shines a light
in every single corner ... to ensure that every child is receiving an
equal benefit," she said. But the one-size fits
all approach of the federal and state reforms strip classrooms of creativity,
said Texas State Teachers Association President Donna Haschke. "No Child Left
Behind is not the be-all and the end-all that it is purported to be,"
she said. "All children can learn, but they learn differently." Report:
10 percent of high school teachers not 'highly qualified' Tom Bell, Associated
Press, Newsday The lowest scores in
More than 96 percent
of teachers in the state's elementary public schools did meet the definition
set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. All teachers must meet
the standard for the subjects they teach by the 2005-06 school year
under the federal act. They are required to demonstrate expertise by
passing an exam in the subject they teach, earning 30 undergraduate
credits in the subject, holding an undergraduate or graduate degree
in the subject, or holding advanced professional credentials. State education officials
have been critical of the No Child Left Behind Act and said parents
should be aware that the latest figures on teachers were based solely
on the federal requirements. "It has little
to do with the quality of a teacher's performance in the classroom,"
said William Librera, education commissioner.
He said half the teachers
who did not meet the highly qualified standard overall did meet it for
at least one of the subjects they teach. Librera
said the high number of teachers who did meet the standard demonstrated
that the state's own tough requirements were working. " Librera and Gov. James E. McGreevey
have criticized the system of judging schools put in place by the No
Child Left Behind Act, a Bush administration effort to raise teaching
standards nationwide. Last year it was determined
that 75 percent of the state's high schools, 49 percent of its middle
schools and one-third of its elementary schools did not meet the act's
standards. New Jersey Education
Association officials said Tuesday that the number of "This is probably
proof that Jane Glickman,
spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Education, said comparisons to
Meeting NCLB mandate / Charlotte Observer (NC) Charlotte
Observer Opinion, So,
what is a federal mandate? It depends on what your definition of "is"
is. That's the kind of slickness imbedded in the assessment from the
General Accounting Office (GAO) that the No Child Left Behind Act is
not a mandated financial burden on states. According
to the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, NCLB can't be classified
as a mandate because under the 1995 federal Unfunded Mandates Reform
Act (UMRA) the NCLB requirements were simply "a condition of federal
financial assistance." States don't have to follow those requirements.
But if they don't, they won't get federal funding. Yes,
the GAO, admits, state and local governments could incur significant
costs in meeting NCLB guidelines. But, the agency ruled, the law cannot
be legally defined as an unfunded mandate because states have a choice
-- comply with guidelines and get federal money or reject the guidelines
and give up federal money. NCLB
zealots happily hopped on the ruling as vindication that the law is
adequately funded and that those who say differently are simply making
excuses for not doing the work to provide every child with a quality
education. Hogwash. The GAO report proves nothing more than the inadequacy
of the legal definition of an unfunded federal mandate. Indeed, the
GAO report makes no attempt to address whether the law is adequately
funded. The agency is simply interpretating
whether the law qualifies as a federal mandate. States
continue to view NCLB as an unfunded mandate, and with good reason.
The law requires states to do a number of things, including regular
testing, tutoring, providing every child a highly-qualified teacher,
moving children on request from low-performing schools to higher performing
ones. All have significant costs associated with them. The Bush administration
has boosted the federal dollars for education. But the money is significantly
less than the administration promised when NCLB became law. The
lofty goals of No Child Left Behind are worthy, and we must continue
doing what needs to be done to make the words more than political rhetoric.
That means Congress and the federal government should stop debating
semantics and provide the necessary money to address the problems that
are hindering children from achieving. Federal education funds could be slashed
in 2006 / Beauregard Daily News
(LA) By
staff reports, Beauregard Daily News, BATON
ROUGE -- Less than a month after the Louisiana Legislature urged the
federal government to keep its promise and properly fund education,
reports have surfaced that the Bush administration plans instead to
cut Louisiana's share of education funds by some $23 million in the
as-yet unwritten 2006 budget. "Where
funding for our schools is concerned, there is a disconnect
between the administration's rhetoric and its record," said Louisiana
Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan. "Once again, we
see promises to our children broken in the shadow of a law that pledges
to leave no child behind." As
reported in a May 27 article in The Washington Post, all federal agencies
are on notice that they will be expected to drastically cut the budget
in the fiscal year following the presidential election. Budget guidelines
in a memo unearthed by The Post ask the Department of Education to cut
its discretionary spending by $1.5 billion. For The
loss would hit Louisiana hard, coming on the heels of a year in which
the federal government failed to provide all the money promised by Congress
when it passed the No Child Left Behind act. In the proposed budget
for the 2005 fiscal year, which is now under debate in Congress, the
administration shortchanges NCLB's Title 1 - which is targeted for disadvantaged students
- by some $6.7 billion. The budget shortfall for School lunch bill handed to Bush Reuters, The child nutrition
bill, passed Thursday, extends for five years the school lunch program,
the Women, Infants and Children program and a bundle of other programs
that jointly cost about $16 billion a year. The Senate passed the
legislation Wednesday. Bush is expected to sign the bill into law, according
to legislative aides. Under the bill, children
would automatically qualify for free meals if their families receive
food stamps. This move was estimated to add 50,000 children to school
lunch lines. Other changes reduce
the amount of paperwork that parents must file so their children are
eligible for free or reduced-price meals. The changes will mean "many
tens of thousands of children" will receive school meals, said
Jim Weill, head of the lobbying group Food
Research and Lawmakers and anti-hunger
groups hailed the rare moment of bipartisan agreement during a congressional
session filled with acrimony. "Here, we have
made major improvements," said Rep. George Miller, California Democrat. The federal school lunch
program provides hot meals to about 27 million American children every
day. Nearly 60 percent of the children get the meals for free or at
a reduced price. Eleven million children are enrolled in school breakfast,
after school snack and summer meal programs. More than 7.6 million
people are enrolled in the Women, Infants and Children program, which
provides supplemental food to poor pregnant women, new mothers and infants. The bill would also
renew two popular pilot programs. One eases bookkeeping rules for summer
food programs. The other provides free fruits and vegetables to schoolchildren
to encourage them to adopt healthier eating habits. The summer food pilot
program operates in 13 states and would expand to Professors: Some math teachers unprepared By MEGAN HAWKINS, Des
Moines Register Staff Writer, Weak state standards
are allowing under-prepared math teachers into "We had received
not an untrivial number of horror stories about students trying to
get licensed in the state with woefully inadequate records in mathematics,"
said Robert Keller , assistant professor of
mathematics at "Math in general
is not the most well-liked subject, especially after middle school,"
Keller said. "If you get teachers not prepared trying to deal with
students not generally enamored with the subject, that's not a good
scenario." Today, the state Board
of Educational Examiners will consider strengthening New standards would
also be similar to requirements at If approved, the standards
would become effective Sharon Ash
, a "Algebra was tricky
for one of my sons, and we struggled with it," Ash said. "We've
been lucky to have great teachers, but there should be criteria - strong,
not weak - for teachers. If educators are suggesting
these changes, who would know best other than they?" Some professors worry
that Many of the teachers
cutting corners have already gone through other training, either out
of state or in another subject area, and want to acquire a math teaching
endorsement quickly, the professors said. Supporters of the changes
said the new guidelines would ensure that all math teachers, whether
they go through accredited "The (state) licensure
requirements for high school math teachers don't represent what we wanted
them to know," Miller said. "A student could
take college algebra, which is not really much more than the intermediate
algebra taught in high school, for example. Math majors take median,
abstract or linear algebra, which give them the underlying theory of
why high school algebra works. It goes much deeper." Secondary math teachers
graduating from accredited Math scores among In According to the 2000
Glenn Commission Report, a nationwide study of math and science education,
student achievement in science and math is directly linked to the teacher's
understanding of material. "Merely being able
to keep one chapter ahead of the students in an algebra or environmental
science text does not a mathematics or science teacher make," the
report said. To earn an The more stringent state
requirements are supported by 23 of 25 School's woes mean vouchers for students A second F grade by
Eastside Multicultural qualifies students for funds to learn elsewhere. By The F grade came two
days after the Hillsborough County School Board voted to close the charter
school for poor student performance and allegations of cheating on standardized
tests. By receiving a second
F, Eastside becomes the first school in the area whose students now
qualify for vouchers through the Opportunity Scholarship program. They
can take the vouchers, worth about $3,900, to a private school or a
better public school. The state has instructed school boards to close
charter schools that receive double F grades. The failing grade essentially
validates the School Board's earlier vote to terminate the school's
contract, which stunned school officials and some parents. The school
can appeal the contract termination by July 7 to the state Board of
Education. "We have been working
to review the entire matter," said Eastside attorney Warren Dawson.
"We'll continue to work in that regard. I'm not sure of the motive
or the reason for the grade. "At some point
in time, the state believed the grade could be a D." Education department
spokesman MacKay Jimeson said Eastside's failing
grade was based on test scores from fourth- and fifth-graders, which
were combined with Hillsborough's average for the third grade. The district
average was used since the state threw out all of Eastside's third-grade
scores, which were inconsistently high and, the state said, possibly
indicated cheating. During a subsequent
investigation, several students told officials their teachers pointed
to the right answers on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, which
is used to calculate grades. School officials were
under pressure to improve their test scores after last year's F grade. "We are holding
these schools accountable," Jimeson said.
"Charter schools are great options for parents and students, when
they're working." However, based on last
year's F grade and this year's results at Eastside, "It doesn't
look like progress," he said. "The school has
not provided evidence of improved student achievement or demonstrated
an increase in student performance over prior years," wrote Education
Commissioner Jim Horne in a letter to Hillsborough superintendent Earl
Lennard. Hillsborough School
Board vice-chairwoman Candy Olson said she was not surprised by the
F grade since local testing officials had estimated Eastside could get
a "high F or a low D." Charter schools are public schools,
but they are run by independent boards. Eastside, which opened
in 1997, was one of Hillsborough's first three charter schools. With
177 students, it offered multicultural education in kindergarten through
Grade 5 to east Most of its students
are African-American children from low-income families. The school district
sent letters to all of the children's parents Thursday telling them
that Eastside will be closed. The children may attend their neighborhood
school, another charter school or a private school using a voucher. The Opportunity Scholarship
program, one of three state voucher programs, began in 1999 with the
goal of giving parents an alternative to failing schools. The state
has two other voucher programs, one for disabled students and the other
for low-income children. The district has scheduled
a special tutoring program for Eastside students from July 12 through
July 23, believing the students learned little at the charter school. The School Board is
also accepting "emergency" charter school applications from
organizations that want to serve Eastside's displaced students. Still, Eastside parent
Trennis Randolph, whose wife is a board member of the charter
school, is angry about the school's closing. He said he doesn't think
the School Board has proven Eastside teachers cheated on state tests. "Show me proof
of cheating, then I can handle it," said
Randolph, who has twin sons at the school. "I haven't seen proof." He said he is unsure
where his sons will attend school when the new year
begins Aug. 5, but he's hopeful Eastside can keep its doors open through
appeals. "I still have hope,"
he said. "I think justice will prevail."
Illinois State Board of Education |
